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Voters in some of the more dysfunctional school districts in our area might be glad to learn that as of September school trustees are included among the elected officials who can be removed from office for incompetence or misconduct.

Removal from office of a bad public servant under Section 87.012 of the Local Government code is not easy and that was a wise move on the part of state lawmakers; otherwise it could be abused and used to get rid of those with opposing political views. To oust a bad school board member, there must be a finding of incompetence or misconduct by a judge.

The legislation authored by El Paso state Sen. José R. Rodriguez was prompted by the El Paso Independent School District standard testing scandal that resulted in a 42-month sentence in federal prison for the district's superintendent.

The scheme concocted by Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia targeted students who performed poorly on standardized tests, were in the bottom of their class or had limited English proficiency. To boost his district's performance on test scores reported to the Texas Education Agency and U.S. Department of Education, some students were not allowed to enroll or were denied credit to become sophomores so they would not be tested, while others were forced to drop out or go to an alternative school.

Rodriguez, a former county attorney, said the change in the law was overdue. The law has always clearly applied to those who hold the office of district attorney, county attorney, county judge, county commissioner, district clerk, sheriff and county treasurer, and it only made sense to add school board members to the list.

There were many taxpayers in his senatorial district, he said, who were frustrated by their inability to do something about the El Paso ISD board, which they felt shirked its statutory responsibilities and allowed Garcia to operate without accountability. It was not until repeated calls for state intervention that the Texas Education Agency finally put the conservatorship into place and appointed a board of managers to run the district that they felt satisfied.

No one anticipates a great rush to put the new law to use, but it provides voters with early or mid-term relief from bad policy-makers who have multiple years left to serve.

“This should send a strong message to board members that they need to act in the best interest of the district and the students,” Rodriguez said.

In the next legislative session, the West Texas lawmaker plans to continue addressing the needs of the school districts by reintroducing legislation to provide whistleblower protection to school district employees who report wrongdoing.

Existing state whistleblower laws provide protection to those who report criminal activity to a law enforcement agency. Rodriguez is proposing expanding that to include the reporting of improper activities, which may not necessarily be illegal, to school administrators.

After the El Paso schools testing case became public, there were many published reports about school district employees who were aware of the irregularities but were afraid to say anything for fear they would lose their jobs, he said.

Anything we can do to reduce the rampant intimidation tactics used by some elected school board members to maintain control within school districts they have fashioned as personal fiefdoms is a step in the right direction.